My name is Cameron Mitchell and I am a professional basketball player, currently playing for the Warrnambool Seahawks in Australia. After graduating from Willamette University in 2010, I have played professional basketball in Mexico, Ireland,Chile, and Australia This blog gives the reader an insight about my experiences playing basketball overseas.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

PDA's, Crazy Drivers, and some Espanol

 Whats up everybody? I have now been in Chile for 5 weeks and am starting to adjust to the new culture and way of life. I have been taking spanish classes in the mornings to try and better understand my teammates, coach, and friends. And I must say it has helped quite a bit. I am still a bit nervous to try and hit on a girl in the club in Spanish, but I can have short conversations now and I am starting to understand the language much better. I am getting used to the team and the coach and the practices. 
However, there are still a few things about Chile that puzzle me... One is the driving...Maybe this is a latin american thing (it was the same in Mexico and Costa Rica) but people here honk ALL THE TIME. There will be a lineup of three cars at a red light and they are all slamming on their horns... I just don’t get it. I thought South Americans were supposed to have that laid back attitude and not be in a rush so much.  Calm down people.. you'll get to where your going.
Another weird thing is the massive amounts of PDA in this country. In Chile, couples make out everywhere...and it is normal. In the middle of the sidewalk, in the super market, or anywhere else that they please. Noone seems to think its weird or gross. It reminds me of my middle/ high school days, where you would walk down the hall and see all the nasty couples making out right in front of everyone... Get a room
Me in valpairiso
On the court we have won 4 in a row and are 9-3, good enough for third place in the Central Region.  Part of the reason for our winning streak is named Torrington Cox. "Torrie" as we call him, is the other import on our team and  is a BEAST. He averages 4-5 dunks a game and has stupid bounce ( I have a cool 2 dunks on the season...no big deal). Watch Torrie posterize defenders here.
I wanted to give my followers a bit of info. about the rules of the league here, as they are a bit strange. There are 10 teams in the Central Region and 8 teams in the Southern Region. Right now we only play teams in the central. You play each team twice and the top 4 from each region advance to the next round.  If you advance, your record is back to 0-0 and you have to play the remaining 7 teams two times each. Then there are the playoffs (your record in the second round is used for seeding)  You can see the standings and statistics here.
Hope everyone is doing well and i'll keep the updates coming soon